1. Field of the Invention
The apparatus of the present invention relates to dental appliances. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved retractor apparatus for retracting certain areas of a patient's mouth such as the lips and the cheek in order to allow greater access to the patient's mouth during dental work such as orthodontics, and particularly suited for conducting general dental, orthodontic, dental hygiene and other dental procedures in greater comfort in a dry field.
2. General Background of the Invention
Quite often in conducting dental work on a patient, such as orthodontics or the like type of operation, there is a requirement that the patient's lips and cheek be positioned so as to allow the dentist maximum access to the area of the mouth in which the operation will be conducted, which in most cases is in the area of the rear teeth such as the wisdom teeth or molars. Furthermore, during certain procedures such as those conducted by an orthodontist, it is important to retract the soft tissue away from the teeth undergoing the orthodontic procedure in order to provide comfortable access to a dry field, including the buccal surfaces of maxillary and mandibular second molars simultaneously, for allowing bonding of orthodontic appliances, such as braces, to the teeth.
While this is an important aspect of an appliance that would be utilized in order to meet these requirements, it is also important that the patient who is normally awake and aware and unanesthetized, be in as much comfort as possible during the procedure.
For example, there are appliances known in the art which have been utilized for affording access into a patient's mouth during a procedure. One of the more common types of retractors is called a Bishop retractor, which is a surgical instrument apparatus which is grasped by a standing surgeon or an assistant who holds the cheek of the patient out with one hand while he, the surgeon, conducts a surgical procedure with the other hand. The Bishop retractor is a rather simple instrument, and is used primarily, if not exclusively, in surgical procedures while the patient is anesthetized.
Secondly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,597, which was patented by Clifford Luttrell, and assigned to the United States of America, teaches a flat, buccal retractor which attempts to solve the problem in the art. However, this instrument's butt or end is quite narrow and sharp which would lead to discomfort for the patient, and also would not allow for keeping soft tissue and saliva out of the field in an orthodontic procedure. The narrow sharp-ended cheek retractor of Luttrell is designed to be used in an operating room setting by a standing surgeon on a fully anesthetized patient. It is designed to retract unsurgerized tissue to allow access to soft tissue on the stretch to facilitate surgerizing the stretched tissue. Furthermore, it could be used to retract surgerized tissue to allow visualization of, and access to, the bony maxilla or mandible beneath the soft tissue in order to allow instrumentation, irrigation, and cutting of the bony jaw with a rotary or reciprocating instrument. Again, these procedures are normally done in a wet field on an anesthetized patient by a standing surgeon.
The Luttrell instrument, in one embodiment, retracts either the left upper lip or the right lower lip, but not simultaneously. The other, mirror form of the instrument retracts the left lower lip or right upper lip, but again, not simultaneously. Therefore, there is a need in the industry for providing an improved universal retractor apparatus that is applicable for retracting the cheek, lips and commissure to expose the left upper and lower posterior teeth and, when used for the other side of the mouth to expose the right upper and lower posterior teeth. That is to say, one instrument, to be used in a universal manner, to provide retraction in all four quadrants of the mouth to comfortably expose, with excellent access and viability, all the posterior teeth comfortably in a dry field. The instrument, in this new embodiment, is shaped in such a way as to provide retraction in four quadrants to provide universal access to and excellent visualization of all posterior teeth in a dry field and in comfort for the unanesthetized patient. Furthermore, there is a need to allow such a device to be utilized wherein the dentist or orthodontist may conduct the procedure while being seated rather than having to hover over the patient, which one may have to do if one utilized the Luttrell device in the procedure.
In addition, the present inventor has obtained U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,701, which provides for an instrument that is provided in a set of two specific instruments, one for the right side providing access and visualization of right upper and lower teeth and a different, mirror image, instrument used similarly on the left side. The present instrument is an improvement in that it is universal, providing access, visualization and a dry field on both the right and left sides and is provided as a single instrument for universal use. Also, the biconvex end portion that extends behind the last molar and is positioned at the end of the intraoral arm is shaped in such a way to provide better access to the back of the last tooth as it traverses the anterior edge of the ascending ramus of the mandible and is therefore much more comfortable in use than the instrument provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,701.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,701 provides for the extraneous parts specifically used for depressing the lower lip and elevating the upper lip. The part of the present instrument that retracts the lip commissure also depresses the lower lip and elevates the upper lip, thereby precluding the need for instrument parts devoted specifically to lower lip depression or upper lip elevation.
The present instrument is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,701 in that it, in one universal instrument instead of two instruments in a set, simplifies manufacturing and maintenance by eliminating extraneous parts and improves the functioning of the present embodiment by allowing better and more comfortable access to and visualization of the posterior of the last tooth by improving the way the intraoral posterior biconvex part traverses the anterior part of the ascending ramus of the mandible.